Chapter 11 Study Notes
Chapter 11, Section 1
 A Campaign to Clean Up Politics (pages 364–365)
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A. Under the spoils system, or patronage, government jobs went to supporters of
the winning party in an election. By the late 1870s, many Americans believed
that patronage corrupted those who worked for the government. They began a
movement to reform the civil service.
o President Rutherford B. Hayes attacked the practice of patronage. The
“Stalwarts”— a group of Republican machine politicians who strongly opposed
civil service reform—accused Hayes of backing civil service reform to create
openings for his own supporters. Civil service reformers were called
“Halfbreeds.”
o The Republican candidates for the election of 1880 were a Halfbreed, James
Garfield for president, and the Stalwart, Chester Arthur for vice president. They
won the election.
o President Garfield was assassinated a few months into his presidency. He was
killed by a Stalwart who wanted a civil service job through the spoils system.
o In 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Act. This civil service reform act
allowed the president to decide which federal jobs would be filled according to
rules set up by a bipartisan Civil Service Commission. Candidates competed for
federal jobs through examinations. Appointments could be made only from the
list of those who took the exams. Once appointed to a job, a civil service official
could not be removed for political reasons.
 How did the Pendleton Act help reform the civil service?
Two Parties, Neck and Neck (pages 365–366)
o A. Amajor reason that few new policies were introduced in the 1870s and 1880s
was because the Democrats had control of the House of Representatives and the
Republicans had the control of the Senate.
o Both the Republicans and the Democratics were well organized in the late 1800s.
The presidential elections were won with narrow margins between 1876 and
1896. In 1876 and 1888, the presidential candidate lost the popular vote, but won
the electoral vote and the election.
o The Republicans won four of the six presidential elections between 1876 and
1896. The Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, however, and the
Senate was controlled by Republicans who did not necessarily agree with the
president on issues.
 Why were few new policies introduced in the 1870s and 1880s?
Democrats Reclaim the White House (pages 366–367)
o In the presidential election of 1884, Republicans remained divided over reform.
Democrats nominated Governor Grover Cleveland of New York, a reformer who
opposed Tammany Hall.
o Republicans nominated James G. Blaine, a former Speaker of the House of
Representatives. Blaine was popular among Republican Party workers.
o Amajor issue in the campaign was corruption in American government. Voters
focused on the morals of each candidate.
o Some Republican reformers, called “Mugwumps,” disliked Blaine so much that
they left the party to support the Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland. The
Mugwumps did not like Blaine’s connection with the Crédit Mobilier scandal.
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Cleveland admitted to having fathered a child ten years earlier and retained the
support of the Mugwumps for his honesty.
o Blaine tried to persuade Roman Catholics to vote Republican because his mother
was an Irish Catholic. His tactic failed, and Cleveland was elected president.
 Why did Grover Cleveland win the presidential election of 1884?
A President Besieged by Problems (pages 367–368)
o Many supporters of President Grover Cleveland sought patronage jobs after his
election to office.
o Many strikes occurred during Cleveland’s administration. Police and paid guards
sometimes attacked the strikers. A bomb exploded at a labor demonstration in
Haymarket Square in Chicago.
o Small businesses and farmers became angry at railroads because they paid high
rates for shipping goods, but large corporations were given rebates, or partial
refunds, and lower rates for shipping goods.
o Both Democrats and Republicans believed that government should not interfere
with corporations’ property rights. In 1886 the Supreme Court ruled in the case
of Wabash v. Illinois that the state of Illinois could not restrict the rates that the
Wabash Railroad charged for traffic between states because only the federal
government could regulate interstate commerce.
o In 1887 a bill was signed creating the Interstate Commerce Commission. This
was the first law to regulate interstate commerce.
o Many Americans wanted to do away with high tariffs because they felt that large
American companies could compete internationally. They wanted Congress to
cut tariffs because these taxes caused an increase in the price of manufactured
goods.
o President Cleveland proposed lowering tariffs, but Congress was deadlocked
over the issue. Tariff reduction became a major issue in the election of 1888.
 What was the purpose of the Interstate Commerce Commission?
Regain Power (pages 368–369)
o The Republican candidate in the 1888 election was Benjamin Harrison. His
campaign was given large contributions by industrialists who wanted tariff
protection. The Democratic candidate was Cleveland. He was against high tariff
rates. Harrison won the election by winning the electoral vote, but not the
popular vote.
o As a result of the election of 1888, Republicans gained control of both houses of
Congress and the White House. The Republicans were able to pass legislation on
issues of national concern.
o The McKinley Tariff cut tariff rates on some goods, but increased the rates of
others. It lowered federal revenue and left the nation with a budget deficit.
o Anew pension law passed in 1890 for veterans furthered worsened the federal
deficit.
o The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 made trusts illegal, although the courts did
little to enforce the law.
 What were the results of the Sherman Antitrust Act?
Chapter 11 Study Notes
Chapter 11, Section 2
 Unrest in Rural America (pages 372–374)
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A. In the 1890s, a political movement called Populism emerged to increase the
political power of farmers and to work for legislation for farmers’ interests.
o The nation’s money supply concerned farmers. To help finance the Union in the
Civil War, the government issued millions of dollars in greenbacks, or paper
currency that could not be exchanged for gold or silver coins. This rapid increase
in the money supply without a rapid increase in goods for sale caused inflation—
a decline in the value of money. The prices of goods greatly increased.
o To get inflation under control, the federal government stopped printing
greenbacks and started paying off bonds. Congress also stopped making silver
into coins. As a result, the country did not have a large enough money supply to
meet the needs of the growing economy. This led to deflation—or an increase in
the value of money and a decrease in the general level of prices.
o Deflation forced most farmers to borrow money to plant their crops. The short
supply of money caused an increase in interest rates that the farmers owed.
o Some farmers wanted more greenbacks printed to expand the money supply.
Others wanted the government to mint silver coins.
o The Grange was a national farm organization founded for social and educational
purposes. When the country experienced a recession, large numbers of farmers
joined the Grange for help. The Grange changed its focus to respond to the plight
of farmers.
o Grangers put their money together and created cooperatives—marketing
organizations that worked to help its members. The cooperatives pooled
members’ crops and held them off the market to force the prices to rise.
Cooperatives could negotiate better shipping rates from railroads.
o The Grange was unable to improve the economic conditions of farmers. By the
late 1870s, many farmers left the Grange and joined other organizations that
offered to help them solve their problems.
 How did the Grange try to help farmers?
The Farmers’ Alliance (pages 374–375)
o The Farmers’ Alliance was formed in 1877. By 1890 it had between 1.5 and 3
million members with strength in the South and on the Great Plains.
o The Alliance organized large cooperatives called exchanges for the purpose of
forcing farm prices up and making loans to farmers at low interest rates. These
exchanges mostly failed. Many exchanges overextended themselves by loaning
too much money at low interest rates that were not repaid. Wholesalers,
manufacturers, railroads, and bankers discriminated against the exchanges. The
exchanges were too small to dramatically affect world prices for farm products.
o Members of the Kansas Alliance formed the People’s Party, or Populists, to
push for political reforms that would help farmers solve their problems.
o Most Southern leaders of the Alliance opposed the People’s Party because they
wanted the Democrats to retain control of the South. One Southern leader,
Charles Macune, came up with a subtreasury plan to set up warehouses where
farmers could store their crops to force prices up.
 Why did the exchanges set up by the Farmers’ Alliance fail?
The Rise of Populism (pages 375–378)
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In 1890 the Farmers’ Alliance issued the Ocala Demands to help farmers choose
candidates in the 1890 elections. The demands included the adoption of the
subtreasury plan, the free coinage of silver, an end to protective tariffs and
national banks, tighter regulation of the railroads, and direct election of senators
by voters.
Many pro-Alliance Democrats were elected to office in the South.
By early 1892, Southern members of the Alliance began to realize that
Democrats were not going to keep their promises to the Alliance and they were
ready to leave the Democratic Party and join the People’s Party.
In July 1892, the People’s Party held its first national convention where it
nominated James B. Weaver to run for president. The People’s Party platform
called for unlimited coinage of silver, federal ownership of railroads, and a
graduated income tax, one that taxes higher earnings more heavily. It also
called for an eight-hour workday, restriction of immigration, and denounced the
use of strikebreakers.
Democrats nominated New Yorker Grover Cleveland for the 1892 presidential
election. Cleveland won the election.
The Panic of 1893 was caused by the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroads. It resulted in the stock market crash and the closing of many banks. By
1894 the country was in a deep depression.
President Cleveland wanted to stop the flow of gold and make it the sole basis for
the country’s currency, so he had Congress repeal of the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act. This caused the Democratic Party to split into the goldbugs and
the silverites. Goldbugs believed the American currency should be based only on
gold. Silverites believed coining silver in unlimited amounts was the answer to
the nation’s economic crisis.
 What was the People’s Party platform in the election of 1892?
Election of 1896 (pages 378–379)
The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidential election
of 1896. He strongly supported the unlimited silver coinage. Populists also
supported Bryan for president.
The Republicans nominated William McKinley of Ohio for president. He
promised workers a “full dinner pail.” Most business leaders liked McKinley
because they thought the unlimited silver coinage would ruin the country’s
economy.
McKinley won the election of 1896. New gold strikes in Alaska and Canada’s
Yukon Territory and in other parts of the world increased the money supply
without needing to use silver. As the silver issue died out, so did the Populist
Party.
 Why did William McKinley appeal to workers and business leaders?
Chapter 11 Study Notes
Chapter 11, Section 3
 Resistance and Repression (pages 380–381)
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After Reconstruction, most African Americans were sharecroppers, or landless
farmers who had to give the landlord a large share of their crops to cover their
costs for rent and farming supplies.
In 1879 Benjamin “Pap” Singleton organized a mass migration of African
Americans, called Exodusters, from the rural South to Kansas.
Some African Americans that stayed in the South formed the Colored Farmers’
National Alliance. The organization worked to help its members set up
cooperatives. Many African Americans joined the Populist Party.
o Threatened by the power of the Populist Party, Democratic leaders began using
racism to try to win back the poor white vote in the South. By 1890 election
officials in the South began using methods to make it difficult for African
Americans to vote.
 What did African Americans do to try to improve their conditions in
the South after Reconstruction?
Disfranchising African Americans (page 382)
o Southern states used loopholes in the Fifteenth Amendment and began to impose
restrictions that barred almost all African Americans from voting.
o In 1890 Mississippi required all citizens registering to vote to pay a poll tax,
which most African Americans could not afford to pay. The state also required
all prospective voters to take a literacy test. Most African Americans had no
education and failed the test. Other Southern states adopted similar restrictions.
The number of African Americans and poor whites registered to vote fell
dramatically in the South.
o To allow poor whites to vote, some Southern states had a grandfather clause in
their voting restrictions. This clause allowed any man to vote if he had an
ancestor on the voting rolls in 1867.
 What methods did Southern states use to disfranchise African
Americans?
Legalizing Segregation (pages 382–383)
o In the late 1800s, both the North and the South discriminated against African
Americans. In the South, segregation, or separation of the races, was enforced by
laws known as Jim Crow laws.
o In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The ruling
meant that private organizations or businesses were free to practice segregation.
o Southern states passed a series of laws that enforced segregation in almost all
public places.
o The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson endorsed “separate but equal”
facilities for African Americans. This ruling established the legal basis for
discrimination in the South for over 50 years.
o In the late 1800s, mob violence increased in the United States, particularly in the
South. Between 1890 and 1899, hundreds of lynchings—executions without
proper court proceedings—took place. Most lynchings were in the South, and the
victims were mostly African Americans.
 What was the result of the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson?
The African American Response (pages 383–384)
o In 1892 Ida B. Wells, an African American from Tennessee, began a crusade
against lynching. She wrote newspaper articles and a book denouncing lynchings
and mob violence against African Americans.
o Booker T. Washington, an African American educator, urged fellow African
Americans to concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than legal or
political ones. He explained his views in a speech known as the Atlanta
Compromise.
o The Atlanta Compromise was challenged by W.E.B. Du Bois, the leader of
African American activists born after the Civil War. Du Bois said that white
Southerners continued to take away the civil rights of African Americans, even
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though they were making progress in education and vocational training. He
believed that African Americans had to demand their rights, especially voting
rights, to gain full equality.
 How did the viewpoints on solving discrimination differ between
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois?